Hyundai Motor India has told investors a dedicated mass-market electric vehicle is coming in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, and the name now expected to go on it is IONIQ P. Hyundai has not confirmed that name. The hint came on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on October 29.
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The car is a compact electric SUV, it will be built in India, and it is meant to be the cheapest way into the IONIQ family.
An earnings call put the IONIQ P name on record
Electrek’s Peter Johnson reported that management said on the call it would introduce the IONIQ P in India after the new Bayon. His Electrek report reads that as a hint at the name of the entry-level EV, which will sit below the Creta Electric. Tarun Garg, managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India, said the company is fully geared up to launch its dedicated mass-market EV in Q4 FY27, which in India’s fiscal calendar means January through March 2027.
Autocar Professional adds a caution. It says Hyundai Motor India has not officially announced the name, and that management did not explicitly link IONIQ P to the project codenamed HE1i. The trade site separately reports a debut in January 2027, later than the end-of-2026 timeline suggested before.
The HE1i prototype and a plant near Chennai
HE1i is the internal tag on the prototype that has been seen testing near Hyundai’s Sriperumbudur plant in Chennai. Electrek notes that earlier test vehicles used ME for the IONIQ 5 and NE for the IONIQ 9, and that the E in those codes points to the E-GMP electric platform, so HE1i suggests an IONIQ model. Team-BHP first described the new compact SUV spied testing in India, per Electrek’s links.
It will be the first Hyundai EV produced locally in India. The company has said it plans to invest $15.5 billion in the country by 2032 and expects India production capacity to reach 1.1 million units by 2030, with the country serving as an important export hub, though no export details were given. Autocar Professional says the company reiterated the investment and aims to lift local content from about 81 percent to 92 percent over time.
Battery supply is the complication. The HE1i will start with imported battery cells, according to Autocar Professional. Hyundai had planned to source local cells from Exide Industries, but Exide indicated that supply under the Hyundai-Kia program will not begin this year, so local sourcing follows later. Hyundai has applied for approval under India’s production-linked incentive scheme for the model and expects it shortly.
The model’s slot in Hyundai’s Indian lineup
The Bayon, Hyundai’s new mid-size SUV, launched on Monday, October 26, at a starting price of 9,99,900 rupees, and Garg set a baseline target of 250,000 units in calendar 2027. He also said EVs, hybrids and CNG models should each make up about a third of a portfolio that reaches half of sales by 2030. Garg also said some overlap between the Bayon and the Creta is acceptable, and Hyundai will keep selling the Verna sedan for customer demand and export potential, particularly in the Middle East. Autocar Professional adds that Creta Electric sales have doubled recently, though the comparison period and volumes were not specified. The company has previously said it aims to bring its EV penetration closer to the industry average in FY28, led by a made-for-India mass-market EV.
Hyundai’s August investor day laid out the wider plan, which Electrek covered in its investor day story: 100 new or refreshed vehicles by 2030, of which 26 are for India. Global third-quarter sales fell 10 percent to 931,211 units, while India grew 9.5 percent to more than 150,000. The strategic case rests on volume. Hyundai is India’s second-largest passenger car maker in sales terms, and the cars it sells there are mostly SUVs priced in the middle of the market. An electric model below the Creta Electric would reach buyers who cannot afford the current range, and building it locally lets Hyundai avoid the import duties that make imported EVs expensive in India.
September showed the scale of the business. Domestic sales and exports from India rose 11 percent to 77,916 units, the highest monthly total yet, according to Electrek. Hyundai already ships India-built vehicles to the United Kingdom, Central and South America and the Middle East, and a made-in-India IONIQ could add to that list.
A covered prototype spotted in South Korea by the ShortsCar channel was first thought to be the IONIQ 4 or IONIQ 1, which shows how much speculation surrounds the naming. Until Hyundai confirms it, IONIQ P remains an expectation drawn from an earnings call and a codename, and any buyer planning around it should treat the January 2027 date reported by Autocar Professional as a report, not a commitment.
No price has been given for the IONIQ P, and Hyundai has disclosed no sales target for it. The name, the price and the January launch date are the three things the company has still to confirm.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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